SCITUATE – History author Ted Clarke said it takes something special to live in a coastal town plagued by storms and floods.

The Weymouth resident’s 20th book on town histories, “Scituate Chronicles,” tells of people and events that shaped Scituate. The subjects include John Smith’s landing in 1614, the shipbuilding and fishing industries, and the Lawson Tower.

Clarke’s book also describes major storms and shipwrecks. One of the shipwrecks he researched occurred off Scituate during a huge nor’easter that became known as the Portland Gale. The storm ravaged the Northeast on Nov. 26 and 27, 1898, and it became known as the Portland Gale because of the loss of the SS Portland, a passenger steamer that sank as it attempted to go from Boston to Portland, Maine.

The captain ignored warnings of bad weather, thinking he was only facing a breeze.

“He was blown out to sea,” Clarke said. “Nature took over.”

Clarke spent six months reading every book he could find about Scituate, and he checked historical and Internet records as well as old newspapers.

“They’d have a flood (in Scituate) and ask people why they lived there,” he said about a question reporters often asked Scituate residents after bad coastal storms.

Writing books on local histories in his retirement has posed some challenges.

“You’re writing about the town you don’t live in and there are people in the town who know more than you do,” Clarke said. “You have to be prepared for people to say things to you. Historians are very picky people about details.”

He said he attended a book-talk event about “Scituate Chronicles” at a Mensa conference at the Prudential Hotel in Boston. Before going, he said to himself, “I’d better be ready for this crowd.”

Clarke is nearly finished with his next book, a history of Boston’s Back Bay. He said the Boston Marathon bombing turned the space around Copley Square into hallowed ground.

“There’s a whole story – bravery and resourcefulness of people,” he said.

He said it’s the “story” in “history” that captures readers’ attention.

Learning about Thomas Watson, who lived near Weymouth Landing and helped Alexander Graham Bell invent the telephone, first sparked Clarke’s interest in writing about local history.

Clarke said most of his readers are from a specific age group.

“They tend to be older. The ones who like it want to read everything you’ve written.”